Srinivasa Ramanujan was a famous Indian mathematician who made significant contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions despite having little formal training. Some of his key achievements include formulating the Ramanujan prime and the Hardy-Ramanujan number 1729. He worked with the mathematician G.H. Hardy at Cambridge University but suffered from illness and passed away at the young age of 32. His life and work have been celebrated through films, books, and National Mathematics Day in India.

1. The Man Who
Knew ∞
Srinivasa
Ramanujan

2. “
An equation means
nothing to me unless it
expresses a thought
of God.
2

3. 1.
Ramanujan’s
Life STory
Let’s take a look at his life

4. 4
Srinivasa Ramanujan was one of the most
famous mathematical wizards who made
important contributions to the field of
advanced mathematics.
Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22
December 1887, to a poor Brahmin family
in Erode, a small village in Tamil Nadu,
India.
Where it all started

5. His crazy love for maths
5
He loved mathematics more than any other
subject and even more than people (except
for his wife).
In his middle school classes, he
mathematically calculated the approximate
length of the equator. He also very clearly
knew the values of the square root of two
and the value of pi!

6. 6
At the age of 16, he got a scholarship for his first
year at the Government College in his hometown.
He later found a job as an accounts clerk in the
office of Madras Port Trust.
Then, he got in touch with V. Ramaswamy Aiyer,
the founder of the Indian Mathematical Society.
With his help, Ramanujan got his paper on
Bernoulli numbers published in the ‘Journal of the
Indian Mathematical Society’ in 1911.
Education and Work

7. The major turning point
7
In 1913, he casually wrote to the well-known
Cambridge mathematician, G. H. Hardy, and told
him about his work. Hardy was mighty impressed
with Ramanujan’s works and assisted him in
getting a grant from Trinity College, Cambridge.
Ramanujan moved abroad and started to work in
collaboration with Hardy. In 1916, he graduated
from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science in
Research.

8. The end of a genius’s life
In 1920, he came
back to India and
died at the age of
32.
While working with
Hardy, Ramanujan
suffered from
Tuberculosis. Even
then he remained
engrossed in his
research and study
8

9. 2.
Ramanujan’s
Contributions
Let’s look at his contributions toward maths

10. 10
Despite having almost no formal training in
Mathematics, Ramanujan’s knowledge of the
subject matter was astounding. Without the
knowledge of the modern developments in
the subject, he had made some important
contributions to the field of mathematical
analysis, number theory, game theory, infinite
series, and continued fractions.

11. 3.
Ramanujan’s
Achievements
Let’s take a look at his achievements

12. December 22
Is celebrated as the National Mathematics Day
in India
12
In his honour

13. The Man Who Knew
Infinity
were made to remember and
celebrate his life.
13
A biography (in 1991) and
a movie (in 2015) titled

14. 4.
Hardy Ramanujan
number
Let’s take a look at this not so ordinary number

15. 15
1729
Mr. Hardy quipped that he came in a taxi
with the number '1729' which seemed a
fairly ordinary number. Ramanujan said
that it was not. 1729, the Hardy-
Ramanujan Number, is the smallest
number that can be expressed as the sum
of two different cubes in two different
ways.

16. 16
1729
1728 + 1
1000 + 729
10³ 9³ 12³ 1³

17. 17
thanks!
- Vanshav Bhalla [X-A]